Iowa Ledger (2022) - Tippie College of Business

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FEATURE BY • JENNIFER SETER WAGNER MODERN Mentorship Early career alums offer advice for accounting students and the department 22
Accounting Department Executive Officer Cristi Gleason had a challenge on her hands. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost every interview for her students had shifted to virtual. Those seeking jobs and internships were coming to faculty with all sorts of questions: In what physical location should students conduct Zoom interviews? Was it okay to sit in their dorm room? Should they take down their posters? How could they get the most out of their virtual internship? Typically, Gleason would turn to her Professional Accounting Council, which has been in place since the 1980s. This accomplished group of alums fly in twice a year to advise the department on curriculum issues and talk to students. “They are a really seasoned bunch,” says Gleason. “Very experienced—a great council. But the pandemic changed the student experience awfully fast for us. And there were just glaring places where we knew we needed input and mentoring from recent alumni. Our students needed firsthand knowledge of how to professionally manage their social media accounts and to understand if they possessed the technology tools required in the real world.” in their classrooms, as well as Microsoft PowerBI and Visio, a flowcharting tool. Thanks to the ECPAC, the department also now has a LinkedIn group, which Gleason notes has proven to be a huge recruiting tool for the department, as future Hawkeyes thinking about accounting are eager to connect with alums in the field. Further, the accounting information systems course is significantly increasing the analytics component because of the ECPAC’s feedback. “Basically,” says Gleason, “We were looking for input from recent graduates about what they needed and what they wished they’d had as students—and their suggestions put us on a significantly different trajectory.” With the 80 ECPAC members signed up as mentors, the next challenge became how, precisely, to match them with interested students. Enter the app, Tribute. And so, the idea of the Early Career Professional Accounting Council (ECPAC) was born. Once word got out about the group, the response was enormous. “I thought maybe 40 people would volunteer,” says Gleason. “Today, we have twice that number.” And the impact was immediate. Among their recommendations: Change up the software. Faculty now incorporate even more Excel Sammy Maasarani (BBA20) is one such recent graduate who sits on the ECPAC. Now based in Chicago, Ill., as an associate for KPMG, he says he volunteers his time because he recognizes the importance of community with his alma mater. “I enjoyed my time at the UI,” he says. “I was a tutor and loved helping other students and seeing them succeed. This mentoring program is a good fit—I can network, feel connected to the UI, and help students.”
Page 1 and 2: 2022 IOWA LEDGER UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
Page 3 and 4: Iowa Ledger is an annual publicatio
Page 5 and 6: CAMPUS NEW FACULTY Learning from th
Page 7 and 8: 1 2 3 ANDREW CHRISTIANSEN (BBA01/MA
Page 9 and 10: Yet even the numbers seem inadequat
Page 11 and 12: CAMPUS RETIREMENTS Raising the Bar
Page 13 and 14: RESEARCH The Case for the Chief Acc
Page 15 and 16: The air was abuzz with anticipation
Page 17 and 18: Shea Fowler (BBA94) didn’t know m
Page 19 and 20: Dan Collins By Lucas Underwood Mixe
Page 21 and 22: The evening of Dan Collins’ retir
Page 23: Another program that Collins spearh
Page 27 and 28: FEATURE BY • JENNIFER SETER WAGNE
Page 29 and 30: BRANDON MILLER WORK HARD Brandon Mi
Page 31 and 32: When he was a student at Iowa, Anth
Page 33 and 34: JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP! University
Page 35 and 36: Ardwin Joseph (Joe) Droessler Feb 2

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